Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Microsoft Cuts Deal With Novell To Support Suse Linux: Page 4 of 5

Along with interoperability between Linux and Windows, the companies' engineers will also be looking to do the same between Microsoft's Active Directory and Novell's eDirectory, as well as develop better document translation technology for Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, an open source productivity suite.

In addition, the companies said they would work together on Web services technology for managing physical and virtual servers.

On the patent front, Microsoft counsel Brad Smith said the two companies had built a legal "bridge" between proprietary and open source software.

"I think that's a historic thing for our industry," he said.

The patent deal, however, doesn't cover the pending antitrust lawsuit Novell filed in 2004, challenging Microsoft's tactics in competing against Novell's desktop applications, WordPerfect and the Quattro Pro spreadsheet.